For the past 6 months I have been travelling with my toddler Madi between Edmonton and Atlanta (We live in Atlanta for 4 weeks and then I work in Edmonton for 2 weeks at a time). What I learned is that travelling and time changes can affect your babies sleep. Even a 2 hour time difference (difference between Atlanta and Edmonton) can have a big…

If your reading this article, you’ve probably heard of sleep training and considered if it is the right idea for your family. I wanted to start off by saying that sleep training is a hot topic in the Mom community, and some may even consider it controversial. For me, sleep training is a personal decision that was effective for our family to get our baby to sleep….

As a physician I tell patient’s that it is safe to sleep train starting at 4-6 months as long as the infant has no concerns with growth and development. I only started sleep training Madi at 11 months event though I knew it was safe to start earlier. I knew it was safe to start sleep training Madi earlier, but struggled with hearing her cry during the process….

Child Wellness

Life of Dr. Mom recognizes that the modern mom wants to be well-informed. With professional experience in postnatal care, mental health, and Pediatrics, Dr. Mom works to educate the modern mom with the most relevant up-to-date medical evidence to support Child Wellness.

My child won’t sleep! Why do children have difficulty sleeping.

Dr. Mom explores the causes of insomnia in children and what causes sleep deprivation.

I often get asked by parents “Why wont my child sleep,” and “Why do some children have difficulty sleeping?” If your child wont sleep, it may be because of some common causes that can cause insomnia or sleep deprivation in children. When it comes to children having a difficult time sleeping, some physicians separate these types of sleep problems into 3 main categories:

Behavioral insomnia of
childhood

Psychological
(conditioned) insomnia

Transient sleep
disturbances.

Before focusing just on these issues, there can be a number of other sleep related problems that are not based in developed behaviours. For example, if your child snores or has pauses in breathing with sleep, this should be discussed with your doctor, because it may be a sign of a different condition known as sleep disordered breathing. We are planning to talk more about this topic at a later date, but would like to focus on behavioral sleep problems in this article.

Its also might help first to determine what your child’s sleep needs are, and see if there are any changes you can make to your night time routine to help your child fall asleep more easily.

Behavioral insomnia of the child:

Behavioural insomnia can happen in young children age 0 to 5 years and can also continue until the child is older. If your child has a Behavioural type insomnia, you may be asking yourself the “Why wont my child sleep?” Your child might be refusing to go to sleep, take long time for your child to fall asleep, or start waking up during the night. Behavioural Insomnia is thought to be caused by unhealthy habits during the evenings that are coinciding with when sleep should start. Parents may also have difficulties setting limits or effectively disciplining their child when it comes to sleep, which may contribute to Behavioural Insomnia.

I struggled with forming healthy bedtime habits
as well as limit setting in the evenings with Madi. From the time Madi
was born until 11 months old, I breastfed her to fall sleep. Madi would wake up
in the middle of the night and I would breastfeed and cuddle her until she fell
asleep again. She often resisted trying to fall asleep again, so I
would pick her up to play with her. Altogether, these are examples of how
my unhealthy night time habits and difficulty with setting limits may have
reinforced Madi waking up throughout the night and not getting a full night’s
rest. When this type of behavior becomes engrained and effects your or
your child’s quality of life during the day time, it can be called a type of
insomnia. This type of insomnia most commonly develops from a caregiver’s having
difficulty setting consistent bedtime rules and enforcing a regular
bedtime.

During the night, children experience a brief arousals
(waking up from sleep) that occurs at the end of each 60- to 90- minute sleep
cycle. This is normal. They may also awaken throughout the night
for other reasons and not able to get back to sleep (often due to difficulty
“self-soothing”) unless they get what they received in the past to help fall
asleep. In Madi’s case, this was breast feeding. We hit a wall where she
would not fall back asleep in the night unless I got up and breastfed
her.

Self-soothing is a behaviour your child learns to
help them fall asleep on their own without the need for their parent or
caregiver to rock, cuddle, breastfeed, or sing them back to sleep.
Children learn through reinforcement that when they cry in the middle of
the night, that Mommy or Daddy will come and cuddle them back to sleep.
It is not their fault, or your fault, but it happens often in many
families! But over time, this can become challenging for parents because
it will wake you up in the middle of the night and prevent you from getting a
good nights rest.

The good news is your baby can learn to
self-soothe at night!

Psychological (conditioned) insomnia:

Psychological insomnia most often happens in older children and teenagers and may be a cause of your child not sleeping. This is seen in older children and teenagers, where there is anxiety about falling asleep or staying asleep. Psychological Insomnia may be related to genetics, medical problems, acute stress, or mental health problems.

My own personal example of this would be when I
am on call at the hospital. On busy call nights my pager would go off
every 15-30 minutes with medical consults or patient issues on the wards.
But even when it was quiet, I couldn’t seem to fall asleep! I was
too worried about my pager going off that I could not relax. This was a
good example of conditioned insomnia.

Transient sleep disturbances:

This occurs when a child who used to sleep normally, starts waking up through the night. This can be caused by stress, or disruption of their normal sleep schedule (like travelling).

If your child persistently has trouble falling
asleep and maintaining sleep they should see their primary care provider to
ensure that there are no medical issues causing the child to have difficulty
sleeping.

Madi often experiences transient sleep disturbances after travelling from Atlanta to Edmonton where there is a time change. See how to handle time change when travelling with toddler.

Life of Dr. Mom is designed for the modern mom whom struggles with balancing family, work, and fun. With her experience working in women health, postnatal care, mental health, and Pediatrics, Dr. Mom works to educate the modern mom with the most relevant up-to-date medical evidence to support families and the healthy development of their children